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Is It Possible to Be a Frugal Collector?

I collect comic books. I always have. As an affluent adult, I’ve gone from collecting the comic books themselves to collecting large volumes that compile six, ten, fifteen issues at a time. But these compilations cost a lot of money, even when purchased at steep discounts.

The more in-tune I become with my money, the more my monthly expenditures on this hobby strike me as a vast, bleeding wound on an otherwise healthy financial body. Using the Your Money or Your Life concept of a Real Hourly Wage, I’m paying between one hour and four hours of my life for each of these books.

Are they worth that to me? I don’t know.

Do other frugal people have collections? How do they balance their hobby with their finances?

I know people who collect variously dolls, stamps, ancient coins, ceramic figurines, Nancy Drew novels, and more. But collectors seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Is the collecting urge a recent manifestation? Is it a symptom of a consumer-driven materialistic culture? Is my desire for new comics irrational? (I haven’t even read all of those I own!) How does one learn to curb the impulse to collect?

Is it possible to be a frugal collector?

I spoke with a woman tonight who collects antique cameras. To a shutterbug like me, this sounds like a fun pastime, but an expensive one. “I’ve never paid more than ten dollars for a camera,” the woman assured me. “I look for them at yard sales and flea markets. Friends know I collect them, so they give them to me as gifts.”

Perhaps I need to change the way I collect. Perhaps I need to move from spending large sums of money on hardback books to buying whatever I can find for cheap, and to borrowing more from the library.

I collect toys and other items from the 1993 film “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Ebay is my best friend when it comes to things like this! And I’ve found, like your camera-collecting friend, that once your friends and family realize that you have a collection, they love to buy you these items. Every time I have a guest over, they peruse my collection and say things like, “Didn’t I give this to you?”

I’m also a big believer that since I’m frugal in most areas, I shouldn’t feel guilty when I make that rare splurge on something I love, like a new item for my collection.

Being frugal here seems to me to be pretty simple – collect quality, not quantity. Only collect the better writers, editors, and artists. That way you are getting good value for your money – in enjoyment value, if nothing else.

Well, you should be spending at least some of your time doing things you enjoy, and thus spending some of your money on things you enjoy. Remember that money is to be used to live; you shouldn’t spend your life just trying to hold on to your money.

J.D., I am in the same exact situation. I’ve always liked comics, but didn’t have the chance to collect until recently when I began working. As kp says, I try to limit myself on the number of different comics I collect focusing on only two ongoing series. I also buy them by the lot through ebay, which is much much cheaper than subscribing to them monthly. Wish I could collect more … but I’m pretty good with being frugal. I do have friend that spends at least $50 a month on comics so I just read what he has. Guess you just need to find a friend like that. Just curious, but what comics are you in to? I follow most of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, especially Spiderman.

You may well be getting your money’s worth for your comics–that’s something only you can figure out. Try setting a timer at work for four hours. When it runs out, think “I just worked that time for [insert spendy comic name].” If it feels good, there’s really no problem with your expenditure. If it doesn’t, time to make some adjustments.

As a frugalista, my friends find it very frustrating at holiday times–there’s little I want. If it’s the same for you, you might consider steering your friends toward your favorite comic shop for gift certificates.

I went through the same comic book-related introspection a few years back. The result was that I stopped buying individual comics entirely in favor of trade paperbacks. Besides being cheaper, they’re easier to store on bookshelves and they take up less space sans advertisements. (I didn’t like reading multi-part storylines until I’d finished collecting the separate issues, anyway.)

Now I find myself reassessing even that expense. One of my favorite bits of advice comes from John Patterson: “Seek elevating recreation.” For various reasons, I find myself enjoying comics less as the years pass — and equally, it becomes more embarrassing to admit that I’m a professional writer who’s never read War and Peace. So I find myself asking, What the hell am I doing reading comics instead of literature, and can I really justify spending $XX.XX on that when I don’t yet own a house?

My feeling here is that collecting something one truly loves is a good way to spend one’s money. That, and travel…always good investments. Saving money just for the sake of saving defeats the purpose, I think.

Outside of disagreement over viewing such expenses as “bleeding wounds” I do think there are avenues to pursue, as I both used to read comics and collect music.

I rarely buy anything new, and have the fortune of living in a region rich with large independent stores who often have bargain bin sales, which I raid and end up getting far more music for the buck than may have otherwise. Stuff that is uninteresting I try to sell back on Amazon, as often what I pick up for 2.95 at Amoeba or Streetlight records I can recoup between 10-50% of the purchase, and frequently enough ends up being a profit maker (what is worthless in Silicon Valley may be a real gem for some collector in Topeka, where my bargain bin item can be sold for a dozen times the cost I paid).

As for comic books, some stores I have known had similar setups (i.e. Bizarro World in Davis, CA sells series of books as collected sets. Often they are not in pristine shape, but if you are not a speculator, you can pick up an entire series or story arc deeply discounted). More and more often, I am hearing that TPBs are being carried (and subsequently discounted) at B+N and Border’s stores. Amazon is once again, also an option, and people go through phases of spring cleaning their collections where possible.

I would also look into some of the free material available (i.e at Deviantart)

I can’t remember where I read it, but the phrase “A lifetime of delayed gratification is not much of a life” stuck with me for a long time.

I think the key is not so much to focus exclusively on “needs” vs. “wants”, but to pick your “wants” very carefully and to focus on value. The object is not to die with a pile of money. The object is to have a good life for all of your life, includeing those years where you’re no longer earning an income through labor.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Festival of Frugality. For those of you who don’t know, this carnival is about frugal living and saving money. (BTW, entries not matching this description have been left out.) I’m sticking with my…

I’ll echo the above comments on not “collecting an investment” as a good balance between frugality and not being frugal. For example, if you buy comics and cards and buy them for enjoyment. You shouldn’t go too wrong (unless it gets to a point of obsessive and excessive).

But when you’re going on eBay, looking to buy that rare comic or card, most likely you’re doing it ecause you think it will go up in the value in the future.

Drop that thinking, because it might not be worth it to drop that money for something in the past that you’ll enjoy for a fleeting moment. And though you can have many fleeting moments with it in the future, that’s probably taking it over the bounds of being frugal since the means don’t justify the cause anymore. Just my opinion.

I collected comic books and action figures and Original comic art. I spent a lot of money, but it was worth it at the time. I loved the stuff, I loved looking at them, reading them, enjoying them on my walls.

Then I suddenly lost interest, I don’t know what it was, but I sold them all, that was a heartbreak. Not just for selling memories but also what little money I got back from it.

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